Wednesday, September 5, 2012

The Mirror's Article on Surrogacy

After reading this article, I realized that the reporter has never had a child born via a surrogate in India. The article was clearly biased as well as the photo's of the surrogates sitting on the floor watching TV. I'm sure the day that the photo's were taken, it was over 115 degrees in Anand, and all you wish to do is sit on the floor. The surrogates in Gujarat, come from poor villages all over Ahmadabad, and they often line up throughout the week and do whatever they have to so that they can be egg donor's or surrogates. This does not just happen with Dr. Patel's clinic in Anand, but other clinics in the state of Gujarat as well. Reporter's need to understand that generally women in India who become surrogates are desperate for money, either to take care of their children, or to build a home or sadly to pay off their husbands gambling debts.

The surrogates do look at carrying intended parents as a business arrangement, why should they look at it any other way? Whatever spin people wish to place on this subject, it is what is is. Intended parents pay money for a woman to carry their child, and the surrogate is paid for her services. Sadly, many doctors in India do not pay them a reasonable rate, but there are doctor's in India who do the right thing. No one is doing this for altruistic reasons, lets be clear.

"Renting our wombs is just a job": Inside the baby factories where poor
Indian women are paid £5k to be 'vessels' for rich Westerners

As many as 2,000 surrogacy births for women overseas were recorded in India’s 1,000 so-called baby factories last year

Rent-a-womb: Surrogate mothers live in dorms to earn lump sums of cash

Shariq Allaqaband / Cover Asia Press

Pregnant women in India are living in grim dormitories away from
their families to have babies for wealthy ­couples, a Sunday ­Mirror
investigation reveals.
As many as 2,000 surrogacy births for women overseas were recorded in India’s 1,000 so-called baby factories last year.
News
of the shocking scale of the industry comes as a British couple have
admitted they are paying £20,000 for an Indian ­surrogate to have a
child.
Dominic and Octavia Orchard provoked fury by insisting they
weren’t interested in the background of the poor woman ­carrying their
baby, saying she was “just a vessel”.
Oxfordshire housewife
Octavia, who has a three-year-old son Orlando, said: “Her womb is just
the receptacle in which it is being carried. Perhaps it sounds cold and
rather clinical, but this is a business transaction.
“Her function
is to sustain the foetus we have created. I’m not interested in her
background. I don’t want to be part of her life.”Cold: The women watch TV on a tiled floor

Shariq Allaqaband / Cover Asia Press

The Akanksha Infertility Clinic in Anand, Gujarat can host 60 surrogates at a time.
The
mothers and staff do all they can to make sure the babies are strong
and healthy, ready to be taken away at birth and delivered to the
foreign parents.
Couples from countries including the UK, US,
Australia and Canada take advantage of India’s surrogacy industry, which
gives strong legal guarantees to the paying parents-to-be.
Some couples need an egg donor, others just need a womb.
With
fees between £14,000 and £20,000, it is certain the couples enjoy a
lifestyle a million miles from the women who make their dreams come
true.
The surrogates receive £3,000 to £5,000, giving them a chance to buy a house and send their existing children to a good school.Industry: Akanksha Fertility Clinic

Shariq Allaqaband / Cover Asia Press

Many ­Indian women become surrogates up to three times – the
limit under Indian law, leaving their families for up to nine months at a
time.
But no matter how desperate and emotionally painful being
surrogate might be, the ­women involved see it as a job. Parvati Lal
Bahadur Yep, 30, is eight months pregnant with twins. It’s her first
time as a surrogate.
“My husband earns 7,000 ­rupees a month (£80) as a driver and it’s hard buying food to feed our three children,” she explains.
“So
when my neighbour told me about earning a huge amount of money as a
surrogate I ­contacted an agent who put me in touch with a clinic.
“I have my family, my three beautiful children, I don’t want any more so I’m not getting ­attached to these babies.
“I
am helping a woman ­fulfill her dreams while she is helping me provide a
better life for my own children. It works both ways.”Surrogate: Parvati Lal Bahadur

Shariq Allaqaband / Cover Asia Press

Parvati is carrying for a couple in South Africa and they
have met once. No one other than Parvati’s husband and mother know about
the pregnancy.
She says: “I have no doubts about doing this and
cannot wait to have the £4,500 I will earn in my hand, but I would
rather keep it private. I don’t want ­people to think badly of me.”The
surrogate houses where the women live for nine months are split into
dorms with areas to watch television, cook, sew and chat.
They’re
allowed visitors only on a Sunday. British mum in waiting Octavia said
this week: “We did not want to see her quarters. By Indian standards
they would be comfortable. By ours, they would not be considered
remotely homely.”
But as long as wealthy women struggle to conceive, there will be others in India poor enough to rent out their wombs.